Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Review

You're about to catch Pac-Man Fever all over again.

Pac-Man Championship Edition seemed like the perfect Xbox Live Arcade game when it arrived back in 2007 -- but an even better version is now available on PlayStation Network. Somehow, gaming's oldest mascot is delivering one of the most exciting games of the year. More mazes, more modes, more ghosts...lots more ghosts, actually. This "deluxe" version takes everything that made Championship Edition great and adds a bunch of cool new stuff. It's like taking a great white shark and adding laser beam eyes and saw blades that shoot out of its mouth.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is all about gunning for a high score. Games are timed, so you need to eat as many pellets, fruits, and ghosts as possible before the clock stops. You don't die as often as you did in the original Pac-Man, you earn plenty of extra lives, and you have many bombs at your disposal to get out of tight spots. (Yes, Pac-Man can now trigger bombs that send all of the ghosts back to their hideout.) Without much fear of death, you can focus on the one thing that matters: representing on the online score boards.

Pac-Man now has many more ghosts to contend with. Like, a hundred more. You'll see the spirits sleeping around a maze, and as Pac-Man whizzes by they'll wake up and give chase. Hold off on eating a Power Pellet long enough and you may find dozens of ghosts trailing behind you in a long conga line. Finally grabbing that Power Pellet and devouring a hundred ghosts in a row is one of the most satisfying things I've done in a game this year. This is also a key technique in getting those high scores.

While the first Championship Edition was super fun, there were only a couple of mazes and modes. DX has nine mazes, most of which are new creations that offer a lot of variety. For example, Spiral has several coils that are easy to get trapped in. Dungeon, on the other hand, has long, cramped corridors. Each maze also has many game options such as Score Attack, Time Trials, and Ghost Combos (see how many ghosts you can eat with one Power Pellet). When you first dive into Championship Edition DX, only the standard Championship II course is unlocked, but each round you play usually unlocks a new maze or mode.

Like I said, it's all about the high score, and Championship Edition DX provides many friendly ways to see how you rank against the competition. You can comb through the leaderboards for extensive data on all the many maps and modes, but there are other really nice touches: your current ranking is displayed right on the title screen, the Course Select screen, and again within the menu for each maze.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX also looks and sounds great. You can select from a variety of maze skins and character designs for each game, running from the 3D Pac-Mania characters to pixilated retro sprites. The lively electronic soundtrack builds in intensity as the game timer ticks down and always gets me leaning forward in my chair.

The Verdict

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX boasts simple, addictive gameplay that will have you competing for high scores on the score boards for months. Everything that made the first game a hit is still here, accompanied by a bunch of new mazes, modes, and ghosts -- all for $10. It's hard to imagine a more perfect PlayStation Network game. This is a master class in game design: you will understand it instantly, enjoy it instantly, and want to play again and again.